12 Facts About Camara Laye

Camara Laye later worked for the government of newly independent Guinea, but went into voluntary exile over political issues.

Camara Laye was born in Kouroussa, a town in what was then the colony of French Guinea.

Camara Laye's family were Malinke, and he was born into a system where he had to follow his forefathers footsteps who traditionally worked as blacksmiths and goldsmiths.

Camara Laye's mother was from the village of Tindican, and his immediate childhood surroundings were not predominantly influenced by French culture.

Camara Laye attended both Quranic and French elementary schools in Kouroussa.

Camara Laye published his first novel in 1953, the autobiographical L'Enfant noir.

In 1956 Camara Laye returned to Africa, first to Dahomey, then the Gold Coast, and finally to newly independent Guinea, where he held several government posts.

Camara Laye left Guinea for Senegal in 1965 because of political issues, never returning to his home country.

Camara Laye claimed that he had considerable help in writing L'Enfant noir and did not write any part of Le Regard du roi.

Camara Laye suggests that Francis Soulie, a Belgian literary critic, was the true author of Le Regard du roi, and Laye was merely an intermediary.

Scholar F Abiola Irele, in an article called "In Search of Camara Laye", asserts that the claims are not "sufficiently grounded" to adequately justify that Laye did not author the mentioned work.

Camara Laye died in 1980 in Dakar of a kidney infection.